On High Seas
by CrystallineX
Summary: Under the command of Commander Erwin's rebellion, Captain Levi's crew is cut down to half from their last encounter with the Navy Police. Erwin has hired some more hands to replace them, but the Captain has an uneasy feeling about some of the new recruits. Especially the odd one wearing goggles. AU
1. Lost Hands, New Hands

**A/N:** Now I'm further detained from finishing my other 3 fanfics. I've decided to blame a certain friend for my new obsession with SnK. YES, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. But the Levihan shipping is my own fault.

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**On High Seas**

Chapter 1 – Lost Hands, New Hands

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It was utter chaos; the clashing of cutlass against sword, the booming of cannons, and a raging storm to top it all off.

The turbulent ocean surrounded the ship, and the ship was flooded with a sea of bloody bodies.

Amongst the mess, a rather short man darted around with frightening speed, leaving the enemy momentarily unaware of their fatal wounds in his wake until they fell to the ground, dead. Able to wield swords in both hands and kill quickly and efficiently, he was reputedly worth a legion of soldiers, earning him the nickname the 'Legion'. He didn't even use the swords the same way in both hands; he made unconventional moves that increased his reach, and his asymmetrical ambidextrousness was a specialty coveted by many. A few had actually lost limbs trying to learn the style, leaving others leery to even try.

At this point, the 'Legion' was making good on his name, compensating for half of his crew that had given up their lives for a cause that they viewed as necessary.

'Legion's' real name was Levi Ackerman; he and his half-annihilated crew worked for the Wings of Freedom.

The Wings of Freedom had been an independence movement founded against the corrupt government over a century before. A century and twelve commanders passed and the current Commander was Erwin Smith – under which the Wings of Freedom had flourished considerably, having been organized into a small army of networks.

When Erwin had inherited the will of the Wings of Freedom, the army of networks had been severely tangled – some thought beyond repair. But in Erwin's hands the networks somehow disentangled themselves. They were composed of those upset with the increasing gap between the rich and the poor due to the rising taxes, and those dissatisfied and angry with the corrupt government. A few of the aristocrats recognized the corruption and secretly funded the Wings of Freedom's cause. That didn't stop Levi from deriding all the aristocrats as 'indolent shits' that 'paid others to do the shitty work while they sat on their asses and just watched shit go down'.

The network also included two ships, one captained by Levi Ackerman, deadly loyal to his crew and able to think quickly on his feet, and the other by Mike Zacharius, who always seemed to know what the weather would be like the day before...with his nose. It made him a very good Captain, really; he could chart course changes ahead of anybody and avoid storms.

Their ships were disguised as those of pirates, but they stored away the official Wings of Freedom flag for special instances, to prove that they were not real pirates to allies. Whilst not pillaging forts carefully selected by Erwin, they made it their job to reverse traffic humans; that is, traffic humans to safety and returning them to their families or finding them jobs, instead of auctioning them off for money or making them slaves. And stealing from any real pirates they encountered. That made both the government and real pirates their enemies.

In other words, the Wings of Freedom had been fighting an uphill battle until Erwin had swooped in and organized things, bringing with him leadership, intelligence, and an eye for potential. And due to Erwin's eye for potential, Levi had had been recruited; with Levi's fighting skills proven by just a few Ocean Excursions, he had quickly risen to being a captain of a ship.

But the 56th Ocean Excursion to free slaves had gone terribly wrong.

It was supposed to be one of the simpler missions – didn't even involve pillaging – but they had been unlucky and run into Navy Police chasing after a real pirate ship.

Needless to say, that was when things had gone to hellfire; Levi could only count his shitty blessings that no slaves had been aboard the ship when the ship didn't escape quickly enough and they were attacked by both pirate _and_ Navy ships.

He briefly wished that the downpour of rain would put out the metaphorical hellfire, but had the presence of mind to slash his way to the helm of his ship and maneuver it so he could escape from between the two enemy ships and into the storm.

* * *

"...and that concludes the report of the shittiest mission I've been on, to date." At this point, Levi was not one to really be bothered about his height, but he would have been lying if he said he didn't feel even a iota of grim satisfaction as he looked down at his commanding officer as he deadpanned his depressing report.

If anybody were to see Levi right now, the words 'short' and 'apathetic' would come to mind, and no little hostility hinted at by the perpetual scowl etched onto his face. What they would not guess was that he was a man who had lost over half his crew. Logic told Levi it wasn't his fault, but it was he who had been captain of the ship at the time, so their blood was on his hands.

Sure, there were casualties during the pillaging process, but never to this extent. He'd known each of their small quirks, been able to read their body language... and he'd lost them because fuckin' Lady Luck had turned her fuckin' back and smiled her shitty smile upon the shitty government instea-

"So we need to recruit more hands." Erwin sighed, cutting Levi's vitriolic thoughts short. Levi suppressed a snort. Erwin had never been much for dwelling. And Levi himself had never believed in Lady Luck, either. Luck could go _fuck_ herself if she did exist.

"I'll recruit hands _after_ my ship is fixed, Erwin." Levi informed his commander.

Erwin calmly replied, "I know how precious Isabel is to you, and repairing her is of utmost importance. But the more personnel you have, the faster your ship will be repaired. And you said that you lost your mechanic too? Mike's ship can't fulfill all of the missions that Isabel should be out there doing forever."

Resisting to grit his teeth at Erwin's logic, Levi curtly said, "Fine. I'll recruit replacements, and _then_ rebuild my ship." He spun on his heel and began to head toward the door.

"Levi." Erwin's firm voice caused Levi to stop in his tracks and look over his shoulder, silently acknowledging his attention.

"You won't be recruiting the replacements. Erd or Gunther will do it in your stead."

That was the last straw, and Levi finally lost his handle on his composure and snapped, "The fuck I'm leaving the hiring of _my_ crew to _anyone_ other than me! I need to be able trust my crew!"

"And you trust Erd and Gunther, don't you? They are good judges of character."

Levi hissed, "And you're saying _I'm_ not?"

Erwin met Levi's stormy grey eyes with his calm blue ones. "I'm _suggesting_, Captain, that at least a single night's rest would do you some good after your losses." Levi's anger lost its steam when he heard the 'suggestion'. Erwin knew him better than anyone now, Levi realized, as the Commander continued, "I'll oversee the hiring of your new hands myself, if you so wish. I have some free time."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room before Levi answered snippily, "Commanders sure have a cushy job, sitting on their asses all day, with time left over to hire their underlings' crew members." But Levi's words lacked bite. Both Levi and Erwin knew the job of Commander didn't leave much time to spare. Levi took the bait anyway, to show his gratitude in his own skewed way, reminding the Commander, "Remember my rules for hands on my deck. No females."

Erwin raised an eyebrow. "I never did understand that rule of yours, Levi. You don't seem to mind women doing men's work for anything else. Unless you're a hypocrite?"

Sparing his commander a disdainful look, Levi answered, "It's fine on land, where both sexes can get some time apart. But when males and females mix in a small space for long periods of time, things get messy, and you know how much I hate messes. So no females allowed on my ship."

A ghost of a smile played across Erwin's lips. "…Well, it shouldn't take too long to repair your ship with the mechanic I already have in mind, and this one comes in a package deal."

Normally, Levi would have wondered what Erwin meant, but he was too tired to contemplate the Commander's words that day. He just wanted to go home, take a hot bath, and pretend he could scrub himself clean of the many losses that day.

He should have remembered that Erwin had a penchant for hiring oddballs.

After all, _he_ was living proof of that.

* * *

When the day after the next came and it was time for Levi to first meet the replacements of his crew, he was fully reminded of Erwin's habit, as his eye was drawn to the end of what would be an otherwise neat line of recruits, where someone was squatting, tinkering with something using what looked like a tool. Pursing his lips, Levi started with the other end.

He no longer found it humiliating to have to look up at a recruit; Levi knew he had enough power to extinguish whatever will the pathetic recruits had in them if he so wished.

"What's your name, recruit?" The captain's voice, though quiet, was deadly.

"Eren Jaeger, sir!"

The boy's green eyes were filled with a fervor unmatched except in those of seasoned warriors. He would do. Levi strolled to the next one, who looked powerful, but feminine. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought that Erwin had picked a lass.

"And you?"

"Mick Ackerman." The way the recruit spoke was reminiscent of his, not in manner, but in the deadliness lurking behind the calm facáde, and Levi had to keep his eyes from widening at the surname.

Ackerman. Same surname. Though Levi was curious, he wasn't quite curious enough to ask a recruit things besides names right off the bat. It would be showing interest, and interest, in his mind, equated to favoritism – something he didn't approve of. He moved on and found himself in a rare situation where he was looking down at a recruit. This recruit looked even girlier than the one before. "Your name?" At least the last one had defined arm muscles; this one looked so fragile he would blow away like a twig if he happened upon a storm. He would have said Erwin was slipping, but the man had contingency plans for contingency plans, and Levi had learnt long ago not to judge a book by its cover.

"A-Armin Arlert, Captain!"

Great. This Armin character didn't even have the self confidence to make up for what he lacked in physical attributes. Erwin better have seen something exceptional in the brat.

And so the introduction of the new recruits went on, until near the end, he supposed he had finally reached what Erwin had referred to as the 'package deal'; they were bunched together, not unlike the first three.

"You."

The tall, brown-haired recruit with a buzzcut stepped forward. "The name is Keiji, Captain."

"Just Keiji?" Levi asked in monotone.

"For as long as I remember, sir." was the reply.

Suppressing a roll of his eyes, Levi moved on. "And you?"

"Moblit Berner, Captain!"

These guys seemed ordinary enough, though Moblit seemed a bit high strung, trying and failing to subtly nudge his goggled neighbor to stand at attention. Levi stared down at the person who had been squatting and taking apart a gadget all during the introduction, paying no attention to Levi.

At all.

So Levi stepped right in front of the last recruit, allowing his shiny, swashbuckling boots to enter the horizon of the vision behind the goggles, and waited to be noticed.

After what seemed like a painfully long time, the person Levi had already internally nicknamed as "Shitty Goggles" finally looked up. "Hmm?" Finally noticing Levi, the goggled anomaly dropped both tool and gadget and shot up, pushing up the goggles into unkempt dark chestnut-colored hair. Unlike the other recruits, a bright smile bloomed across Shitty Goggles' face. Immediately, a hand shot out toward Levi, supposedly for a handshake, which Levi uncomfortably ignored. "Levi Ackerman, right? I'm Hanji Zoe, your new mechanic! You've already met Moblit and Keiji, right?" The aforementioned two were forcibly dragged into headlocks by the shorter, goggled entity. "They're my assistants, but no worries, I'm sure these two won't mind if you want to borrow them, right?" The creepily wide smile turned on the poor companions who had no choice but to nod nervously.

As soon as Levi led his new recruits to meet the rest of his crew that was working repairs on Isabel, Shitty Goggles went crazy about how beautiful the ship was, even when almost half the stern had been reduced to splinters.

Feeling a headache coming on, Levi somehow knew things would never be the same on his ship ever again.

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**A/N**: I may have gotten too technical with the history behind the Wings of Freedom, but this'll be the only chapter where it'll be so text-book-like.


	2. The Stange Ones

**On High Seas**

Chapter Two – The Strange Ones

* * *

It seemed that Erwin's hiring instincts were right, as usual.

The girly blond – Armin – turned out to be a mini-Erwin in terms of strategy and organization. What Levi didn't understand was why Erwin hadn't taken the brat under his own wing. Perhaps it was because Armin was a bit idealistic and the Commander had thought real life experience on the sea would wash off some of the rose-colored dye that hindered his vision. Well, even if the kid was physically useless, he could use an extra advisor on slave extraction missions.

The taller but still girly recruit that the captain shared a surname with, Levi hadn't spoken directly with yet. The captain had decided that since the recruit had come to him first, he would wait for Mick to follow through and broach the subject first as well, to finish the job. Still, Levi kept an eye on the kid who had indirectly claimed to share the surname 'Ackerman'. And he saw potential. The kid was strong, adapted quickly, and excelled at fencing, to boot. He would see just how talented the kid was on a mission.

But it was the first and last people that had stood (and squatted) in the recruit line that took up most of his attention.

The first, Eren, was one of the most hot-headed, justice-filled, passionate, and angry pain-in-the-ass teenagers Levi had ever had the misfortune of being in charge of. It would have been fine if it were Eren alone, but he always seemed to butt heads with another recruit (who honestly pissed Levi off because of his half-hearted attitude toward everything except glory) named Jean. Thankfully, Mick always mediated between the two and pulled the two apart before things came to blows.

When Mick wasn't around and Eren got into a fight with Jean again, Levi did what he did best: bashed their heads, handed them a sandstone each, and then made them clean the ship deck until it sparkled. Levi was inclined to silently agree with Eren, because he _despised_ half-hearted bastards and wouldn't have let Jean step foot onto his ship if it weren't Erwin who had hired him. But half-hearted shit (that was currently scrubbing the dock down) aside, Eren strangely seemed to drain Levi's energy a bit more than the other recruits did. It wasn't like the kid was high maintenance or anything; he worked himself to the bone to learn how to work the sails and fight. Maybe it was because he and Mick were practically joined at the hip and it took extra effort to ignore the two, with one a royal pain and the other possibly a relative.

The last one… well. Levi's new mechanic was, to put it lightly, a bit manic. If you were to ask the captain himself about it, he would say that the Shitty Goggles was bat shit crazy, high on opium (though he had no proof of the latter), and too obsessed with tinkering for anybody's good. Levi felt sorry for the assistants, but he wouldn't trade all the earl-grey tea and classy tea sets in the world to be in their boots.

The first time he saw their tomfoolery, he didn't so much first see it as _feel_ it from the floor above.

Levi had been enjoying a cup of earl-grey tea when the tea set before him started to tremble and shake. He was on his feet in less than a second nearly tumbled down the stairs to the cellar in half the time of what it would have taken. Rushing down the hallway, he froze at the sight.

Shitty Goggles was happily tearing away at the oaken boards on the side of the ship, ordering Keiji and Moblit around to replace them with new, unidentifiable ones. Levi had spent his fair time on different types of ships, but he had never seen the type of wood that was replacing the boards that looked rather musty by his standards, but otherwise _completely fine_. Levi dearly wanted to ask them what the hell they were doing, but he chose to wait it out, watching board by board being thrown aside, waiting for the trio to notice him. Which didn't take much time, as Moblit seemed to be very sensitive of the killing energy radiating from Levi.

"C-captain Levi, sir!" Moblit shakily saluted, bringing Levi to the attention of Keiji who saluted as well. Unfortunately, the goggled monstrosity was too excited at the prospect of mangling the walls of his ship to notice the ship's captain himself in the flesh standing nearby.

When the crazy mechanic noticed that nothing was getting replaced, Levi finally was noticed. Not reacting to Levi's killing intent at all, Shitty Goggles merely gave the captain a puzzled look. "Oh? What are you doing here?"

Levi had to force himself to reign his temper in. "In case you've forgotten, I'm the captain of this ship."

The mechanic's face didn't change. "Yeah, but what's a captain doing down in the cellars?"

Gritting his teeth, Levi ground out, "I think the better question is what the hell you're doing to _my_ ship."

Shitty Goggles didn't even blink. "I'm improving her."

Sweeping his eyes over the wreckage incredulously, Levi asked with an edge in his voice, "I fail to see how destruction is part of the improvement process."

Boisterous laughter was the response Levi received. "Nonsense! These oaken boards can't even compare with the cedar that I'm having Moblit and Keiji replace them with. White cedar is so much lighter, and lighter means faster!" If only this weren't a mechanic that Erwin had recommended...Levi thought murderously when Shitty Goggles mused, "I would have used balsa wood if it were available in this area, but – "

"Oi, Shitty Goggles." Levi cut off the mechanic's line of thought before it got too carried away. "Just how much of Isabel are you planning to _improve_?"

Shrugging off the unflattering nickname like it was nothing, the mechanic answered after a bit of consideration, "Well, I planned on renovating the heavier and more easily accessible places on the ship." Catching the look in Levi's eyes, the mechanic assured, "Don't worry, I'm a mechanic, and I've spent my fair share of time fixing ships; I _do_ know the importance of balance." Hands pushed up the goggles into greasy hair, revealing surprisingly serious brown eyes. "But speed is also crucial for ships like this." Posture straightening, the uncharacteristically serious voice continued, "I was under the impression part of the reason your last mission failed was because Isabel wasn't fast enough."

Pursing his lips, Levi regarded the mechanic with dark eyes, as if seeing Hanji for the first time. He was shocked by the sober look revealed in the eyes hidden behind goggles most of the time. Finally, he silently acknowledged Hanji as he turned to return above deck. But he threw over his shoulder, "And I suppose speed will make up for making Isabel look like a patchwork quilt?"

Any seriousness emitting from the mechanic was gone, goggles back over eyes. "Yes, but if it bothers you that much, I suppose we can stain the wood before hammering it in." was the cheerful reply.

Levi swiveled his head forward. "Please. It'll be an absolute eyesore if you replace the planks as they are."

From then on, every time Levi passed Hanji and co., he struggled to treat the clanging sounds and excited (and agitated) shouting as if they were nothing. After the first few times he (rather nervously) checked on the trio and found the damaged area significantly better than before, Levi took to avoiding any sounds that indicated that the Crazy Mechanic was working in the area.

…Which was harder than he thought it would be, as after the first encounter, the mechanic actively sought Levi out for permission toimprove certain crucial parts of Isabel. Which he was leery of, because Shitty Goggles' definition of 'improving' something always meant taking it apart first. 'Taking apart' being a gentle term, 'dismantling' a more accurate one, and in Levi's eyes 'destruction' was the only way to put it.

One such occasion found Levi cornered and uncharacteristically agitated.

"Levi, can I please take a look at the rigging? I promise Isabel will be faster than ever!"

The familiarity with which Shitty Goggles addressed bothered Levi. "No."

"Please please _please_?"

Levi suppressed a groan. Gods above, Shitty Goggles had gone to the lengths of pushing up the grimy goggles and staring down at him with large doe eyes. "For the last time, _no_. And that's final. Now move your ass out of my way."

He forcefully pushed past Hanji, failing to notice the determined expression on the mechanic's face.

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**A/N**: Next chapter might be the next Ocean Excursion!


End file.
